Three-nuts
Well-Known Member
I have a 74 Dart Custom. In July I swapped in a low-mileage (44K) /6 (from a '71) for the dead original.
There were no issues. Changed the oil & filter twice in the first week (donor motor had sat for a while) and checked the oil each time. I;ve checked the oil a dozen times or more since. No problems.
Fast forward to Saturday morning, when my son came home from college with the Dart. He's put on a couple thousand miles since July. He reported an odd noise which had just started that day, a higher-frequency scraping-type noise. With the motor running, I checked around and found that when I moved the dipstick, the sound stopped. The stick was rubbing on the crank.
Later that evening, he came back & the noise had returned. I pulled the stick. The end was now broken off. After digging out the stick from the old '74 motor, it was obvious about eight inches were missing. When I tried to install it, it kept hitting the pan.
I've read a ton of threads and descriptions about broken dipsticks and tubes. What puzzles me is that this one was fine for 46,000 miles, never abused, and nothing was changed. I was the last one to handle it. There was no abuse of the tube or stick. The tube can move in the block, and I can remove the tube, but it can only move an inch or so before hitting either the motor mount or the manifold.
So what caused it to break, and why doesn't the other stick fit?
There were no issues. Changed the oil & filter twice in the first week (donor motor had sat for a while) and checked the oil each time. I;ve checked the oil a dozen times or more since. No problems.
Fast forward to Saturday morning, when my son came home from college with the Dart. He's put on a couple thousand miles since July. He reported an odd noise which had just started that day, a higher-frequency scraping-type noise. With the motor running, I checked around and found that when I moved the dipstick, the sound stopped. The stick was rubbing on the crank.
Later that evening, he came back & the noise had returned. I pulled the stick. The end was now broken off. After digging out the stick from the old '74 motor, it was obvious about eight inches were missing. When I tried to install it, it kept hitting the pan.
I've read a ton of threads and descriptions about broken dipsticks and tubes. What puzzles me is that this one was fine for 46,000 miles, never abused, and nothing was changed. I was the last one to handle it. There was no abuse of the tube or stick. The tube can move in the block, and I can remove the tube, but it can only move an inch or so before hitting either the motor mount or the manifold.
So what caused it to break, and why doesn't the other stick fit?
